Males Exhibit Novel Relationships of Dominance with Nest Departure in the Social Paper Wasp Mischocyttarus mastigophorus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Variation in female fecundity is often affected by differential access to the resources that support costly offspring production (Wade & Schneider 1992; Bridges & Heppell 1996; Reznick et al. 1996; Bentley 1999). Easy access to food leads to earlier onsets of fertility (e.g. human menarche: Bentley 1999), and well-fed females have increased numbers of progeny and enhanced offspring survivorship (Qian & Chia 1991). For insects, high nutritional stores can amplify ovary development and increase clutch and egg size (Blanckenhorn 1991; Fox 1993; Bridges & Heppell 1996; Hartsfelder et al. 2006). For social species, competition among group mates dictates access to food (Wheeler 1986; Markiewicz & O’Donnell 2001; Vervaecke et al. 2005). Dominant animals can exploit subordinates’ foraging effort, and in a number of taxa females employ agonistic interactions to obtain food from group mates (birds: Lendvai et al. 2006; crustaceans: Fero et al. 2007; insects: Markiewicz & O’Donnell 2001; Molina & O’Donnell 2008). Aggression may additionally induce departure to forage for food, and dispersal from the group, in subordinates (Tacha 1981; O’Donnell 1998; Pilastro et al. 2003; Russell et al. 2003; Scott & Lockard 2006). Females in primitively eusocial Hymenoptera provide excellent examples of the relationship of aggression with fecundity (e.g. independent founding paper wasps: West-Eberhard 1969; Free et al. 1992; O’Donnell 1998; Pardi 1948; Röseler 1991). Social Correspondence Yamile Molina, Animal Behavior Program, Department of Psychology, Box 351525, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. E-mail: [email protected]